The Tennessee Star by Eric Lendrum 1/30/2023
A new proposal from the Biden Administration calls for the census and federal surveys to add a new group labeled “Middle Eastern and North African,” which would mark the first new ethnic group added to federal records since 1997.
According to ABC News, the new proposals released Thursday would combine all questions about race and Hispanic ethnicity into a single question, rather than keeping them separate as the 1997 standards do. The proposals were crafted by a group of selected representatives from multiple federal agencies, organized by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
Over the years, those who would otherwise be considered Middle Eastern or Northern African would essentially consider themselves White due to not being Hispanic. As such, the new proposal would create their own separate category, abbreviated as MENA. Some of the countries that would be included in the MENA category include Israel, Egypt, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and Morocco.
More:
https://tennesseestar.com/2023/01/30/census-may-add-first-new-ethnic-group-since-1997/
